Ayacucho (Peru) : Huancute districts indigenous people to be removed by lobbyists from Hochschild

[October 2, 2016. Stockholm]

About 140 families in the Annex to Huancute, San Francisco Ravacayco in the province of Parinacochas, Ayacucho, fear being left without their land, because the mining Suyamarca gave them a period of three months for them to leave the land where they have settled for many years.

The company plans to start exploitation of the work during this year more than 8,800 hectares of land.

According to this information, the villagers have signed a contract in which cede their land in favor of mining Suyamarca in January. For this reason the term within eviction began to be considered from the first week of March.

It was "NOT DONE THROUGH THE NOTARY PUBLIC"

But Cristina CayoPacheco, representative of the Annex to Huancute, denies it. According to her, in the last three months the mining company had illegally entered purchase agreements with 32 inhabitants, whom the Municipality of San Francisco de Ravacayco recognized as the sole possessors of thousands of hectares, and set aside the rest of the 108 settlers, most of whom were unaware of this sale process.

"It was assumed that the contract they signed did so in a notice of Coracora, but did not happen because the staff of the mining sought each landholders to sign. Also in the contract states that the possessor after selling the property, pledges to leave within three months, "he says.

In this regard, Ruben Pacheco, alderman of the City of San Francisco de Rivacayco, said that in the district capital is promoting a meeting with all the representatives of its annexes tomorrow April 24, in which the issue of Huancute will be addressed .

"Part of the community had negotiated their land to mining," says Edilicia authority.

"Do I allow abuse or continue being naive"

On this issue, the governor of the Ayacucho region, Wilmer Rivera, reported to be involved in this conflict and not allow any abuse of the mining or perhaps the false naivete on the side of the villagers in the area.

Two weeks ago, El Comercio tries to communicate with the central Hochschild Mining, which is part of the Suyamarca mining, but so far the company does not provide its version of the conflict with the community.